Maybe it's this?

http://www.consumerfraudreporting.org/fakegovt_FBI_AntiTerrorist.php

Their advice "While we don't want to encourage people to ignore correspondence from legal government agencies, it is a safe bet that NO U.S. government agency will make any first contact with you by email. Certainly not the FBI or IRS."

One better, here is the official response from the FBI about this particular scam.

http://seattle.fbi.gov/pressrel/2008/pr042508.htm

That UT has smart generous people in its comments.

When I read Kitt's comment about the email my simultaneous thoughts were ...

If heru-ur wanted to s/he could take that email and open it in Linux to check it out. One of the "systems" folks I used to work with (we were on a Unix platform) used to mess with virus loaded emails for sport. And, lo and behold, within minutes comes the offer.

And, I wonder if this is one of those phishing emails - I've been getting warnings about on a ListServ recently? Cue up Annie W shortly after.

I really, really like the folks who hang out at Glenn's place. Thanks you two for being here.

"The FBI does not send out e-mails soliciting personal information from citizens." (from official release)

Because they already have all your personal information!

:-)

Thanks for your replies. I appreciate your input. I don't have time this morning to read Annie's links or to forward to Heru. I'll be back sometime late this afternoon or this evening. Thanks again.

Seems like no one at all "believes" the FBI tale, in part because of all the gaps and inconsistencies and contradictions in their case (such as it is) so far, and in part -- tellingly -- because there is no opportunity for the accused to confront and/or rebut the accusations. "Rule of Law." Hm. Who'd a thunk. I thought we were all done with that.

So while all sorts of Government statements, leaks, speculations and whatnot are still uncritically presented to the public in report after report, on television and in the press, there is an uncharacteristic questioning of these reports, sometimes within the report itself, sometimes from outside, and there seem to be few who accept the Government's claims without a healthy dose of salt.

Progress? Well, maybe.

Given the fact that the agencies involved have routinely bumbled cases, lied and dissembled, accused and smeared the innocent, operated for political interests, manipulated the media, and have been so thoroughly compromised and corrupted that they cannot be regarded as impartial investigators of the facts, the surprise is that they were for so long considered so highly, and by many still are.

But what kind of example has there been when, long after it was shown and known that the Regime was violating the law, appointing incompetents and cronies to high position, and otherwise behaving unconscionably, the Congress continued to approve budgets and appointments and continued to refuse to investigate or act on investigation findings?

This is complicity of the highest order, and when your Government itself denies its own Constitution, and the branches of that Government are mostly oblivious to -- or actively cheer -- the chaos and the disarray that they themselves enable, and they all ignore, dismiss or disparage public outcries (at least those that they perceive come from the 'left'), we face an almost insurmountable problem.

This case crystallizes so much of what's gone wrong in the realm of law enforcement (pre-dating the Bush regime, of course) in this country.

What is different is that many folks simply aren't buying it.

Of course that doesn't mean Ivins isn't the culprit. We have no reason to have confidence in the Government's truth telling or accuracy. Their reputation for lies and smears precedes them.

Thus, no matter what they say, the presumption should be that they are lying.

Sad.

AnnieW - The fact that Bruce Ivins and his wife made eleven contributions to Donald Wildmon's American Family Association (a Christian fundamentalist and Christian Zionist organization) doesn't prove that Ivins was behind the 9/11 anthrax attacks, but it provides a possible motive for the attacks and for his framing of Muslims for the attacks. It also provides a framework for interpreting his newspaper letters about Christian nationalism, Jews and Judaism. You will no doubt find similar statements in the AFA publication that Ivins subscribed to.

It's easy to make this case: Christian Zionism > Donald Wildmon > American Family Association > Bruce Ivins > anti-Muslim militancy, Christian nationalism, pro-Israel militancy, pro-Jewish militancy, pro-Patriot Act > 9/11 anthrax attacks

One could argue that Ivins attacked Daschle and Leahy to terrorize them and the Congress into supporting the Patriot Act.

I've never met a Democrat who gave the AFA the time of day, not to mention 11 contributions.

Overall, however, the FBI case against Ivins is very weak -- laughably weak, in fact. Even the mainstream media have already torn the case apart. Imagine what Ivins' defense could have done, if Ivins had had his day in court.

(In case you haven't been following the subtext here: Christian fundamentalists and Christian Zionists will now be strongly motivated to tear down the FBI case against Ivins, because they won't want to be associated with the 9/11 anthrax attacks. Perhaps that explains the WorldNetDaily article I just pointed to here, which focused on problems with the handwriting and polygraph tests. That's fine with me. I don't want this case to be swept under the rug.)

According to wiki (I know, I know), AFA has some anti-semitism issues

Anti-Semitism

Donald Wildmon has been denounced by major Jewish organizations, such as the Anti-Defamation League and the American Jewish Congress. Media Matters has stated the AFA Journal "has long served as a platform for anti-Semitic theories and innuendo."[80] In AFA publications and in interviews, Wildmon has stated that he blames Jews for "profane" television programming, stating that the television industry is controlled by Jews and that they push an anti-family agenda through television programs featuring "immoral" behavior.

Wildmon has stated that he believes obscene content on television and in movies is a result of the media being controlled by Jews, who intentionally place anti-Christian messages and activities into their programming to undermine Christianity.[81][82][83] Wildmon further characterizes Jews as more supportive of homosexuals than "average" Americans.[80]

Media Matters claimed an article in the March 2005 issue of AFA's Journal insinuated that raising children as Jews would lead to criminal lifestyles, and that it required a conversion to Christianity in order to make them productive members of society.[80][84] The Journal also sells The McGuffey Readers, a series of children's books aimed at promoting Christianity to children, and which also claim that Jews are "superstitious" and have been rejected by God for being unfaithful to him.[85][86]

I stand by my statement that Ivin's may not even have been the subscriber to the magazine, his wife might have. She was the one that was very "pro-life".

The donations were all given in the 90's, that's when the AFA's main crusade was nasty rap lyrics, and many people were swept up in that.